Questions for Sutton's Grange Hall

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Created on Tuesday, 06 March 2018 22:21

Written by Chelsi Byrnes

SUTTON- The people in the town of Sutton had gathered around today for town meeting day to vote on what they should do with the town's current Grange Hall. Many feel that the town should burn it down or remake it into a town gathering place.

While at the meeting, the fire department had their discussion about the whole process of tearing it down and burning it down.

"Our fire department was actually based in the basement of the Grange Hall for about 30 years and I can say the basement is not exactly a pleasant place," Firefighter, Dana Patoine said. "It flooded every year and I do agree that it definitely creates a hazard there on that intersection. I think it's the most cost effective solution would be to tear it down."

 The town's planning commission has had put into several ideas as well.The cost of the grant through the USDA will be $50,000. The cost of the loan will be $100,000. This money will go towards tearing down and rebuilding the building.

 "It is 75 to 85 thousand dollars and doing nothing may seem free, but we already own the building and it's only going to further deteriorate and depreciate in value." said Brandon Maze, Clerk for the Planning Commission.

Patoine claims that with all of the construction that would be involved with rebuilding the Grange Hall, it could be very expensive to build the foundation for the building.

 "I am also a building contractor and I price out remodeling versus construction quite often and generally remodeling is often more expensive just because you have to move the entire building while maintaining the structural integrity. Generally they move it and then they put a foundation under it and that usually is three times the cost to build a foundation under the existing building and then bringing everything up to code is tremendously expensive because you have to do so much demolition before you can start it."

 Patoine explained how it can also be costly for the schools.

 "The town is concerned as this is a lot of money. If the town decides to use the Grange Hall as a meeting place, they could lose their school and their current school meeting place is the school's multipurpose room."

However, the Planning Commission sees it as an opportunity for the town to be able to gather together in a larger space than the current multi purpose room at the school.

 "I personally think that it is worth moving repurposing it because it's an investment for the community that we should make," said Maze. "The planning commission feels that it's useful to have a blank space, a raw space with a bathroom and a kitchenette that can be used for many different things."

 The results are now in and the town will now still be seeing the Grange Hall for a bit longer. This vote was a non-biding vote. The town had declined the idea of tearing it down or moving it. 60 percent of the town had turned the idea down, while 40 percent of the town had agreed to tear it down and remodel it into something new.